Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-09-02
sIGHTLEss CADETS At DRILL
Blind Boys Marching and Going Through
the Manual of Arms.

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Sixty boys in military uniform, whose
sightlesss eyes were blind to the sunlight
which trickled through the leaves of the trees
above their heads, and who could not recog-
nize the faces of the friends and kinsmen who
surrounded them, marched and drilled the
other day in the grounds of the Pennsylvania
Institution for the instruction of the Blind
with the precision of veterans. The drilling
OF the cadets is a feature of this institution,
and it is an original feature. to which there
is none similar in this country. The patience,
the study and time spent upon this branch of
instruction presents reward in the improved
bearing of the little soldiers, and in the health
which the exercise gives them.
When the cadets marched from the gym
nasium to the playground it was almost i'm
possible to believe the miniature militiamen
were blind. Their shoulders were squared,
their heads erect and their step was firm and
regular. The muzzles of their muskets made
an unwavering line of light, and the red
stripes on their blue trouser legs rose and fell
with the regularity of a machine. 1t was the
final full dress drill of the cadets, and all Of
their friends and relations and the friends Of
the institution were gathered around the
walls of the playground. But the applause
which saluted the cadets as they filed past was
the only knowledge they had of the near
presence of hundreds of spectators The left
hand of each boy rested, as he marched, on
the left shoulder of the boy preceding him.
The first boy in each company could see.
Commadant Maj. King directed the bat
talon to ground arms,n and at the word
every gun touched the ground at the same
moment. The cadets separated and stood at
two yards distance. Then at the spoken COM
mand they went through calisthenic drill,
clapping their hands, raising their arms and
swinging them like SO many automatons work
ed by the same piece of mechanism.
1t was only when the boys bent over to
touch the ground with their finger tips that
there was any irregularity then the difference
in height Of the cadets made it impossible for
the long limbed boys to recover themselves as
quickly as did their younger comrades. The
guns were picked up and the command was
given. "Twos threes and fours forward"
The ranks broke and there was scattered
movement to the right; the right hands and
arms Of the cadets held their muskets firm, and
the left hands moved anxiously in search Of
a.companions shoulder. By some instinct finer
than sight itself, the moment the wandering
fingers of a cadet touched the person of a
comrade he seemed to know instantly that it
was the man he sought.
In few seconds the battalion was formed
In close ranks of two As the ranks marched
and contaminated, broke and reformed,
the:other inmates of the institution sat and
stood in groups around the walls, guessing
from the words of the command what their
companions We're doing. Among them was q
large, heavily built man, who sat with ono
hand over his sightless eyes and with the
other clasped in both of those of little girl
She called him father, and as the drill went
on told him as graphically as child could
what her black pretty eyes saw before her,
and how and what the cadets were doing
Philadelphia Press.